The Loss
by blackraven23
Summary: When the Titans go against an adversary, and one of their members dies, how will the remaining members cope with their loss? rated for later chapters...
1. How Could He?

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah, i do not own teen titans, nor do i really own a lot of the stuffi actually "own".. but whatever... and i kinda own NightFox.. blahblahblah

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The Loss

Chapter 1

NightFox was a hard villain to win against, his powers making him impossible to catch, and his annoying comments from the rafters of the warehouse, were angering the Titans, making them lose their concentration. He was getting harder and harder to pinpoint, and the acoustics in the warehouse were not helping. Starfire was throwing starbolts everywhere, in a desperate attempt to hit NightFox with one of them, but the bolts were not helping at all, except to shake the warehouse, making sawdust fall to the weathered floor. Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy were spread out on the warehouse floor, searching in the dark corners and along the shadowed walls for clues as to where Nightfox was. Robin was crawling up in the shadowed rafters, his eyes adjusted to the dim light of the moon filtering through the grubby windows, attempting to see the mysterious criminal. Unfortunately, the villain was able to hide easily in the corners of pure darkness, and Robin couldn't risk a light to search in those too, lest he give away his location.

"Wherever there is a villain…" NightFox jeered, and Robin whipped his head around to where the sound had originated from, or at least where he thought it had come from. "There is a superhero…" the silky voice came from a different corner this time, and Robin attempted to follow the voice. "Isn't that right… Robin?… My favorite birdie-boy is back, isn't he?" Nightfox jeered again, "How is Batman, by the way?" the voice resonated around Robin, whose nerves were jangling. "I hope you send my condolences, and my regrets that I could not invade his fine city instead…"

Nightfox suddenly leapt from his hiding place, foot outstretched. Robin saw this at the last second, and attempted to grab the ankle of the villain, but his fingers slipped right through as though through smoke. Unfortunately, the foot became solid a moment before impact, catching Robin on the chest, and throwing him back across the wooden rafters.

Nightfox disappeared again while Robin rolled and stood, catching his breath and his masked eyes wary of another sudden attack. "Come out you coward!" Robin yelled, but his bait did not lure NightFox, who was well aware of this trap.

"I would love to stay and chat, Robin my boy, but unfortunately, the darkness is disappearing, and soon I must return home." Robin stared into the deep darkness, trying to discern a distinct shape in the gloom. There was none, but NightFox continued, "Night, dark, gloom, black, shadows, its all my element, young chum. You cannot beat me in my element. I'm sorry, but this is the one time you cannot beat a villain. Just give it up." He hoped Robin would fall for the bait.

But Robin, being an egotistical leader and all, could never give in to his nemesis's commands, and fell for the bait unwillingly. Suddenly, Robin had an idea, probably the best, and perhaps worst, one of the day. "Raven! Flip on the lights!" Raven complied, and thousands of watts of lights turned the gloomy warehouse of not a moment before, into a brightly lit auditorium, filled to capacity with empty boxes and bags of varying degrees of degradation. All the other Titans shielded their eyes with their arms, but Robin was looking around in the warehouse, searching for NightFox. The only shadows were those of his comrades, and his own.

"Come out! I know you're still in here!" Robin yelled, directing his comment at NightFox, but someone just chuckled behind him. Robin whipped around, but there was no one there, save for his shadow. Another chuckle resonated around the room, and Robin whipped around again, but the rafters were empty, looking particularly desecrated in the light.

"Unfortunately for you Robin, wherever there is light, there is darkness, where there is a superhero, there's a villain. Wherever you are, I am there as well. Good, and bad. It's the circle of life Robin, something you can't even change. Life, and ultimately death." A human form was emerging from Robin's shadow, towering behind him. The form's arms were raised, palms flat, and suddenly the hands pushed Robin on the back, and the boy wonder tumbled forward. Robin flipped, outstretched hands grabbing a rafter as it flew by. Robin righted himself gracefully on the wooden beam, eyes searching for the attacker, but there was none to be seen.

The man stood in Robin's shadow once more, eyes little more than white slits, hands barely formed into fingers and palms, body a cruel impression of a man. "Goodbye Robin…" the figure whispered, and grabbed Robin by the ankles, and threw him through the wooden rafters, to the gray weathered stone below. Robin was thrown down, quick as light, and had no time to react, and neither did anyone else. The figure above in the rafters smiled to himself, watching the teenage leader fall in slow motion. Starfire screamed, and desperately lunged forward, not unlike Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Raven. But unfortunately, none of these efforts proved victorious, for Robin fell and landed, right on his head. Robin's last thought, _How could I? _last image of Starfire running towards him, and last sound, was Starfire's scream, and then all he saw was, black.

_To be continued..._

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R&R!! Please! i get a little email! its so cool! D 


	2. The Awful Truth

_aww... its been so long since ive updated.. not like anyone cares for this story.. thats alright... but i will, hopefully, be finishing those others that people reviewed.. did people review this story? darn.. well, if u did, then thank you, and for the other stories too! _

**Disclaimer: **its obvious i dont own the Teen Titans, but why dou ask?

_

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_

_previously..._

Robin's last thought, _How could I? _last image of Starfire running towards him, and last sound, was Starfire's scream, and then all he saw was, black.

_To be continued…_

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The Awful Truth

Blood trickled from Robin's skull, pooling around his shining black hair, staining the weathered stone, a deep red. Starfire knelt by Robin, tears streaming down her shining cheeks.

"ROBIN! NO! How could you take Robin!" She screamed to the heavens, arms open to the lightening sky. All the other Titans crowded around their fallen leader, tears flowing freely down their cheeks, even Raven's. Cyborg was checking his pulse, and Beast Boy turned to him and asked, "Is he-?"

Cyborg's look told him all he needed to know. Their leader was gone.

Robin was dead.

Starfire stood, "Who did this? Who dares hurt Robin? Let him show his face, and let me fight him head on! Come out coward! Show yourself to Starfire! I will DOMINATE you!" she yelled and her voice reverberated around the warehouse, but no one answered her battle cry.

Cyborg stared at Starfire, then back at Robin, and stood. Wrapping his arms around the crying Tamaranian, the two sobbed together. Raven still knelt by her leaders head, no tears falling down her pale cheeks, no sadness showed in those amethyst eyes of hers. If you just looked at her briefly, you would think that she was not sad her leader had died, and was happy that he had finally gone. But if you looked deeply in her eyes, through the layers of protection she had created to shield her emotions from the world, you would see the saddest girl alive, crying her eyes out. She would be beating her fists upon the ground, ripping her hair out, screaming bloody-murder for all around to hear. That would be Raven if she could show emotion, but she sadly, cannot.

Beast Boy could sense that Raven was sad inside, and put his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into the changeling's warm body. Her arm snaked its way around his waist and her head rested on shoulder. "Its alright… Raven, it's alright…" He whispered silent condolences to the quietly raging Azarathean, as she tried to control her emotions. Maybe all those years with Azar could help her. She knew that there was no way that she could bring him back from the dead without a price, and the fine would be high, very high. Perhaps even another life in exchange for his soul.

Perhaps her life…

_Robins POV_

_Robin walked alone in the darkness, no lights showing him where he stood in the seemingly endless black of some foreign place. His arms were raised out in front of him, searching for something he might bump into, until he remembered he had a small flashlight in a pouch in his belt. He reached down to retrieve the small flashlight out of his pocket, but he discovered he was no longer wearing his belt. He didn't even have hands, or a definite body to grab the flashlight, if he had one here. Where was here? Where was this depressing place of no light, no sound, or people. Was he even a person anymore? Did he still exist? What had happened in the battle between NightFox and the Titans? He remembered vaguely being up in the rafters, and a bright light as the lights were switched on. Then he had fallen, only to pick himself back up again on a beam. Then something happened, and Starfire had screamed, the sound resonating around in his head. A few tendrils of the scream, fear and hurt preserved in the vibrations, still lingered within the depths of Robin's mind. He had fallen again, hadn't he? Then it all came crashing back to him, he had fought, then someone had pushed him, and he was falling… And excruciating pain, and an image of Starfire, lights shining brightly behind her flaming hair, her glowing eyes. Then all he could remember was the black had consumed the shining brightness, throwing him unceremoniously to this bleak place. Wait, he had died. Hadn't he? That explained the pain, and the darkness, the last image of Starfire. And why the pain hadn't lasted as long when he hit the cement. He could feel himself there, barely. But he was… Dead. Dead!_

**Back to the Titans**

The Titans were gathered around the body of their leader, forming a sketchy circle, only four of five that they needed to complete the spell. 'We need one more person', Raven thought bleakly, 'or else the spell wont work.'

They would have to re-awaken Terra before they could re-awaken Robin.

But they needed a place to keep Robin until that task could be accomplished.

Raven sat at the head of their deceased leader. He could not be past the First Gate yet, could he? This needed to be done as soon as possible, before any disfigurements happened. A minute had already passed and four was all they needed before problems occurred. Big problems. They needed a place where Robin's body would be safe from intruders, and he could wait until his soul was recalled from the River of Death. The closest place that Raven could think of was… No, that shouldn't even be a possibility. Her mind was sacred to her, a place of refuge where she could safely harbor her emotions without resulting in disaster. She remembered when Beast Boy and Cyborg had traveled into the depths of her mind, and had met some of her emotions. She remembered those cold, foreign bodies, like fingernails scraping across the inside of her skull, leaving behind strange fragments of their thoughts, that she occasionally came across. She could still dimly sense Cyborg's and Beast Boy's emotions, even now. _Fine, _She thought resignedly, _But only since it was the only place._ Everyone was looking at her strangely, as if waiting for orders. _Great, now she was the new leader…_ Not what she wanted to be. She instructed to everyone what she was doing, and they nodded solemnly.

Placing her hands on either side of Robin's head, ignoring the unpleasant sensation of cold blood seeping between her fingers, Raven focused all her energy on them both, and darkness gripped them in an unrelenting grip. The darkness flung them into Nevermore, all-too-familiar territory for Raven, but new for Robin. If Robin was alive.

If he would ever reawaken.

_To be continued...again..._


	3. Raven's Memories

ima so sooooooo sorry that it took so long to update. i had some great ideas, but my mom said i couldnt go on the computer until the end of the semester, so i was forced to give into her evil demands, and wait a week until i could update... sorry it took so long! thanks for the reviews! D they make me feel so much better...

**Disclaimer**: um.. i dont own them.. if i did, why would i waste my ideas here? o.O hehe... P

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The Loss: Part III

_if he would ever reawaken..._

Robin's body lay still after the darkness surged, then died away again. It was quiet in Nevermore, the only sound, a soft gurgling of a faraway stream, a few dark notes played softly from a hidden flute. A dim echo of a wind played across Raven's cheeks, her violet hair fluttering slightly. Raven stood and lifted Robin with her magic, and he bobbed slightly, as if on a rolling sea. Raven was concentrating to hard to notice the sudden oppressiveness of the darkness, the lack of the wind, and the flute started to play a darker, faster tune. A caw rang through the darkness, and the unearthly sound was distorted and disfigured. It was at this sudden sound that Raven looked up, her eyes flashing black for a moment, before fading back to their amethyst color.

There was no movement when her eyes flickered over the surrounding landscape, nothing changing from its bleak surface. The rocks were still, stars twinkling slightly in the distance, and the darkness was unmoving. No nightmares slunk forward into her sight, and she felt no emotion growing close. She went back to her work on Robin, floating forward, before it rang out again. The caw was louder this time, its tones ringing in and out of the audible spectrum, still distorted, forming nightmarish images in her mind.

_A red man, darkness cloaking minimally on his heavily muscled body, reached out and struck a young woman, who fell to the ground, white dress flowing out behind her, her clothes completely the opposite of the man's. The woman turned around, blood dripping out of the corner of her mouth, anger in her eyes. She attempted to hit the man, but he grabbed her arm, and twisted it painfully behind her back. She screamed out in pain, and the man's eyes multiplied and glowed red._

Raven cried out as if she had been struck physically, and the black aura holding Robin up, suddenly dissipated into nothingness, and Robin's lifeless body slammed to the earth. Raven was kneeling on the ground, eyes and teeth clenched in terrible pain, arms clutching her head, as if to stop the images that were forming faster and faster.

_Raven, as a young girl, sat on a darkly sheeted bed, eyes closed, and whispered three words. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. She whispered this several times, and her body slunk into a deep meditation. Focusing all of her energies on a talisman that sat before her, she tried to make it float in black energy, but failed miserably, again. Frustrated by her failed attempts, Raven reached out and grabbed the talisman, and threw it across the room, where it hit the black wall, and fell, cracked to the ground. A figure in white rose out of the cracked jewelry, and disappeared after a moment. Raven's anger, which had changed her eyes red, suddenly disappeared after she realized what she had done. "Mother!"-_

The caw faded away, as did the horrifying visions that had flocked eagerly to the broken-down girl, that was kneeling on the dusty ground.

"No! NO!" Raven called out into the darkness, her voice echoing eerily in the empty land before her.

_He was returning to strength, and she was letting him. She was letting the Seed grow in her. She was not stopping this monster. She knew exactly what he would do if she lost control again and he took her over. It couldn't happen again. Never, never, never again. _

She had to get out of there. Now. If she stayed much longer, Anger would want to fight her, and she would lose. After all, she could not win in this state, not this soon after losing such a dear friend.

Raven stood, and concentrated her energies again, this time calling more quickly on her resources, and they came much faster, as she was so close to her emotions. Her helpful, but fatefully damned emotions. Robin rose by her powers, and she ran as the rocks in front of her created a path. There was one place where she was certain he would be safe, at least for a little while. She was running on the path when she heard the caw again, and this time she ignored it, but it rang louder, and this time, only in her bones. She stumbled and kept running, and then ran off the path, cape flapping uselessly after her, but she was unafraid. Robin fell beside her, still in his case of onyx energy.

The stars on the horizon were not moving, and were it not for the movements of her cape and hair, she would have thought that she was not falling, but simply hanging in empty space. She stopped falling a moment later, when she reached a pool of silvery water, which on its surface, showed a full moon and flickering candles. Raven instructed the energy holding Robin over the water, and watched as Robin slipped silently under its surface. No waves rippled across the glassy surface, and the moons presence did not waver, nor did the candles. There were five candles, one black, one green, one white, one blue, and one red. They circled the pool in the vision, placed in the scene of a pentagram, the black at the top, the red at the left, the green at the right, the blue in the lower right corner, and the white, the lower left. Raven remembered hauntingly of her own birth and consecration, by the people of Azarath, and she remembered this setup of candles, and it was different from all of the other children's. None of the others needed the candles of the five elements. None of the others needed any specifically colored candles, inscribed with runes of indeterminate age and power. She felt different, badly different.

Robin was fully underwater now, and she need not worry about him until he was reawakened. The emotions did not know of this place, or she hoped that they did not, and she hoped that the goodness of her mothers' memories was a sufficient enough barrier, and strong enough one, so that Anger could not reach Robin's body and make use of it as its will.

She hoped.

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RR! hehe.. next chapter... Terra returns... or is it really her? o.O oooooohhh! the DRAMA! haha... ok..


	4. Poisoned Blood

omg im sooo sorry for taking FOREVER to update.. but i had writers block and hw and blahblahblahhh and my mom was evil and so on and so forth. well i bet u dont care.. haha okay.. here it goes. yeah i know its short.. but its the best i can do..

**Disclaimer: **I dont own teen titans. Duh. isnt that obvious?

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Last Time...

_Robin was fully underwater now, and she need not worry about him until he was reawakened. The emotions did not know of this place, or she hoped that they did not, and she hoped that the goodness of her mothers' memories was a sufficient enough barrier, and strong enough one, so that Anger could not reach Robin's body and make use of it as its will._

_She hoped._

To be continued…

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**Poisoned Blood**

blackraven23

_Anger stood next to a pool of glassy water, its reflection shimmering on the flat surface. Its blood red cloak fluttered in an invisible breeze, but it didn't seem to notice. It's deep set, double eyes were not looking at the area surrounding the pool of water, it was staring intently at something beneath the surface. The breeze did not ripple the unchanging surface, and Anger's face was impassive as it stepped forward towards its prize in the pool. Kneeling next to the silvery water, Anger reached over the water, and slowly traced a circle counterclockwise around the body underneath. A thin fiery line formed, following the path of the finger not a moment before. Just the circle took a lot of concentration and strength from Anger, but it persevered, and continued on with its mission. Concentrating as hard as it could, Anger drew a star inside the circle, the burning lines connecting to form a fiery pentacle. A taut smile stretched its face, but didn't reach its deep red eyes._

_Stepping back and raising its arms above the glistening pool, Anger whispered "Rashkina, Faramond, Arazinthus". The watery substance rose and was forced back, away from the body of which Anger wanted. Quickly. This had to be done quickly, and soon, before the rest of the emotions realized it was here._

_It could feel them coming, feel each individual emotion's thoughts and feelings coming closer by the second. It would have to do this hastily, and it perhaps would not have the desired effect that it had wanted too much. It had to do this correctly, it had to this right, no matter what the time constraints were. _

_Concentrating everything in its mind on the lifeless body below it, Anger slowly knelt at the feet of the dead boy. Then, taking the hood off its face and leaning forward towards the boy's face, Anger kissed the boy. Disgusting, it thought, but it had to be done. It was all in the plan. Anger started to transfer some of its energy and consciousness, when Robin awoke. Or seemed to. Oh this was a problem, Anger thought to itself. _

_Some of his soul was still left in his body, and was reacting to have another soul inhabiting the same body as the original. Anger easily fought Robin's battered and tired soul, and continued to send its consciousness to his body. Unfortunately, the soul sent vibrations through Robin's long-dead legs and arms, and they thrashed under Anger's suffocating body. _

_Anger's concentration slipped, even for the slightest second, and the circle of protection broke, sending the waves of memory over the evil emotion and Robin. Anger was forced off of Robin by his thrashing, and the last bit of its consciousness did not make it to the body in time. Tired and annoyed, Anger jumped up away from the waves that were coming closer by the second, and managed to get out of the hollowed out pool just in time, and the waves roiled gently beneath it. _

_Staring down at the now covered boy, Anger tried out its new power. Concentrating hard on the boy and what he would have to do, which was hard, because of the memory covering him, managed to make the boy's eyes flash red. _ _Mission__ accomplished._

_Chuckling to itself, Anger turned around and fled quickly into the night, before the other emotions showed up and ruined its happiness. Its **evil** happiness. _

Raven awoke with a scream that shattered the night, and for a few moments, she did not know where she was. Disoriented and in the dark, her arms whipped about her, before connecting with something hard and metallic. Raven squeaked as something clanged to the floor with a loud crash, or it seemed so to her. Recoiling from the crash, Raven raised one of her arms and summoned the drapes to open. The thick black fabric slid back on slick silver poles, throwing the room into sunlight. The noon-time sun shone through the dusty windows, and the thick slats of light illuminated a broken-looking black painted clock that had ended up face first on the deep blue carpeted floor. 'Crap' Raven thought silently to herself, and lifted the clock delicately back onto her mahogany bedside table with her powers, berating herself all the while for being so stupid.

Raven stood slowly on shaking legs and crossed her lightened room to her dresser. Without bothering to look at herself in the mirror she grabbed a cloak and slung it around her shoulders and walked to the door. It slid back noiselessly and Raven stepped out slowly. Making her way down the hallway, the only noise the swishing of her cloak, Raven steadied herself for the day ahead. Once outside the door to the living room, she hesitated for a moment. Taking a deep breath, she punched in the code, and the double doors opened. Raven could sense the tension in the air, and she knew that everyone else was ready, everyone else was here. She opened her eyes under the hood of her cloak, and saw Starfire sitting silently at the island, staring off into space, BeastBoy sitting across from her doing the exact same thing. Cyborg was pacing restlessly in front of the main TV monitor, obviously waiting for her to arrive. He looked up when the doors opened, and his deep brown eyes showed a sense of weariness unmatched by anyone she had ever seen before.

Other than when she looked into her own amethyst eyes.

Starfire and Beast Boy both turned to her, but she could not force herself to look into those eyes as well. There was just too much pain in this room. Cyborg stopped pacing and stepped towards Raven. He faced her, his shoulders thrown back, facing her with as much courage as he could muster, and said in his strongest voice…

"It's time."

Raven nodded shortly, and the remaining Titans left the Tower in silence. It was time to visit somewhere were she had sworn to never return to. It was time to meet an old friend…She whispered to herself in a small voice, so the others could not hear.

"_Terra…"_

To Be Continued.

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sorry i didnt make them get terra to live again.. thats in the next chapter.. i just realized that robin had to be infected before they could reawaken terra cuz then right afterwards they were going to reawaken him soooo yeah.. okay.. thanks for listenin'.. R&R if u would...


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